Beautiful
by Maiden of the Moon
Summary: Her mouth went dry as he pressed his palms to her ballooned belly, his soft gray gaze never leaving her scarlet face. Kataang. Inspired by Katara's outfit in "The Headband."


Disclaimer: No bald bending monk for me… (sobs)

Author's Note: Just a random idea that popped into my head while watching "The Headband"… because pregnant Katara ish da hawt, y0. X3

Oh— and before anyone mentions OCC-ness, let me just say that Katara _is _rather self-conscious about her appearance. I'm sure there's an extent of "showing off for Aang" in there (hence why she asks _him_ in 4 different episodes "how do I look?"), but whenever anyone makes a questionable comment about her appearance, she gets flustered and embarrassed. With that in mind…

In any case, please enjoy!

**XXX**

**Beautiful**

**XXX**

It had been a last-minute idea from Sokka. And, like all of Sokka's ideas, Katara had initially responded with a flat-voiced:

"You're crazy."

"C'mon, Katara," her brother had wheedled, even as his eyes sparkled enthusiastically— like they always did when he was convinced he'd been struck by genius. "It's not like we can exactly glue a beard to your chin to make _you_ look older."

"I'm doing my hair differently!" she protested, though even she knew how weak of an argument it was. "And I'm wearing… more maternal clothes…"

Wow, _that_ had helped her case.

Sokka merely smiled as his sister's face colored with frustration, realizing this was a losing battle. After all, she knew— deep down— that his idea made sense. It was even a _good_ idea… it was vanity and vanity alone that kept her from agreeing forthright. And knowing this made watching Sokka smirk at her even more unbearable.

"_Rgh_—fine!" Katara snapped, wrenching the wad of proffered clothing from her brother's outstretched hands and storming out of the cave to find a bit of privacy. If she really had to do this, she at least wanted to avoid the embarrassment of putting herself together in front of everyone.

This explained why the passing of an hour found Katara half a mile down the path, looming over a small pond and staring dourly down at her own reflection. It wavered innocently in the wake of a passing fish, making her look even wider.

For a single, irrational moment, Katara found herself hating that fish. And Sokka, too, of course.

"Curse him… curse him and his stupid ideas…" she muttered under her breath, resting a hand on her ballooned belly. It looked surprisingly real, thanks to the leather wrap she'd used to secure the wadded clothing to her person, making the protruding lump deceptively smooth under her dress. And as she gazed down at herself, Katara found—much to her disgust— that her brother really had been right: with her hair in large buns and her stomach the size of a baby air bison, she looked much older. She felt much older, too… though not in a good way. More like a mid-life crisis way. And a fat way.

_On the bright side,_ she thought with a hint of sarcasm, her lip curling in revulsion as she rubbed self-consciously at her gargantuan stomach, _no one will know it's me. Well, except for Sokka and—_

"Katara?"

She nearly had a heart attack. "Aang?!" Katara yelped, whipping around so fast that she nearly lost her footing and toppled into the shallow water; luckily, her newly acquired belly was enough of a counter-weight to keep her upright. Of course, knowing that only made her wish all the more that she'd fallen in and drowned... or at least had a chance to wash the mortified blush from her face. As it was, the heat continued to travel up her body, until her face seemed to be on fire. "What're you doing here?!" she squeaked, trying—and failing—to hide her lump with her hands and arms.

Aang cocked his head, notably concerned. "Well, you'd been away from camp so long, I was worried that you might have gotten lost or hurt or something… We can never be too careful, nowadays, you know…"

His voice trailed off meaningfully, but he didn't seem overly anxious. Rather, he seemed curious—and slightly amused, if his arched eyebrow was anything to go by— at the expense of Katara's obvious discomfort. She squirmed under his probing gaze, scowling when a small smile began to toy with the corners of his lips.

"…_what_?" she grumbled after a silent minute had passed, eyes downcast and mouth scrunched in a pout. "What do you find _so_ _funny_, Aang?"

Aang, for his part, shook his head good-naturedly, lifting his hands as if in surrender. "Nothing," he replied, voice warm and gentle and clearly full of well-meant laughter, as he took a few meandering steps forward. "Nothing's _funny_… it's just— is that what you're wearing to my meet my principal?"

Katara frowned, moving to place her hands on her hips— before hastily choosing to cross them over her chest instead, having realized at the last second how much the former movement would have accentuated her current embarrassment. "So what if I am? I needed to look older, didn't I? And Sokka said—and… uh…"

Her voice faltered, then failed, when Aang stepped forward again— trapping her between his body and the edge of the pond. He didn't seem to be paying her words the slightest bit of attention… instead, he was watching her intently with those storm-colored eyes, a probing glimmer shining in their unnervingly gray depths.

"…why are you so embarrassed?" he asked suddenly, softly, head tilted as he gave her a slow once over, as if drinking in her appearance. "I've never seen you so self-conscious before."

"I—" Katara hesitated, finding it hard to speak around her general feelings of chagrin. She was fat, she felt gross, and to top it all off Aang was looking up at her in _that way_— that way that reminded her how wise and intuitive and observant the normally playful 12-year-old— no, _Avatar_— was. It was unnerving. "I…"

Aang waited patiently, a shrewd little grin playing on his face.

"I just feel… really… really feel kind of…"

Despite her best efforts, the words continued to pour from the waterbender's mouth as a jumbled mess, fragmented and completely meaningless. Though Aang wasn't helping this process, Katara thought darkly, by smiling so knowingly at her, and stretching out those long fingered hands…

Her mouth went dry as he pressed his palms to her exaggerated stomach, his soft gray gaze never leaving her scarlet face.

"You know," he whispered, cheeks pinking a fraction as his hands moved to cup her belly— as if really searching for a life inside of her— "I always think you're pretty…

But I don't think you've ever looked more beautiful than you do right now."

She gaped at him. Aang beamed. Then he calmly removed his hands, stepped away from her frozen form, and walked back the way he came— casually meandering down the rocky road that lead to the cave.

As Katara watched him go, as stone-still as if she'd been bended to the spot, a single word echoed through her frazzled mind:

_Beautiful…?_

She swallowed, fingers skimming nervously over the places Aang's hands had touched; they still felt faintly warm.

_Beautiful?_

Mechanically, Katara twisted her head— again gazing down into the clear pond water. Her bloated form stared back at her, just as large and unfamiliar as it had been five minutes ago. But now there was something different about it— something she couldn't quite name. Katara's eyes narrowed a bit, scrutinizing her reflection… only to find— to her own surprise— that she was _smiling_.

_Beautiful…_

Cheeks flushed and heart fluttering, Katara sucked in a breath and let the word warm her very soul.

And as she began the short trek back to her friends, the young waterbender wondered— in the very distant, back corner of her mind— how many times she could look forward to Aang calling her "beautiful" in the future.

**XXX**


End file.
